1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of raising animals and more particularly to methods for removing dead animals from animal raining houses such as chicken coops. The present invention further relates to conveyors for use in removing dead animals from animal raising houses such as a chicken coop and more particularly to system and method for transporting dead animals within an animal house to a central disposal site.
2. Prior Art
Commercial poultry, such as turkeys, chickens, ducks, and geese have been a main food source throughout history. For hundreds of years, poultry had been raised and processed on small family farms to be locally sold to buyers. However, as the human population increased, the demand for poultry has increased. As a result of this increased demand for poultry, the production of commercially raised poultry has evolved from small family farm operations to large business operations devoted solely to the production of such animals. These large factory farms commonly raise several million animals each year. Without such farms, the demand for such animals could not be met. While the technology for processing such animals has evolved dramatically, the methods and apparatus for raising animals have remained relatively unchanged. In fact, many factory farms today use the same general methods and apparatus previously used on smaller farms, but on a far larger scale.
In any animal raising site, animals are going to die during the raising process for any number of reasons. Although the job of removing dead animals from the site may be difficult and is time consuming and physically strenuous, the removal of dead animals from a site is one of the most important activities in maintaining a healthy environment on factory farms. In fact, dead poultry remaining within the flock in a chicken coop for prolonged periods of time can increase the growth of bacteria such botulism, salmonella and camplylobacter among the batch. While feeding and watering are often automated, a crew of workers often accomplishes the removal of dead poultry manually.
Human labor usually is required to manually locate and transport the dead poultry within the coop to a disposal site away from the coop. Typically, human labor walks through the coop, picks up any dead animals, and carries the dead animals to a central pile, or disposes of the dead animals through a door in the coop. Humans can only carry so many dead animals at one time, in terms of both weight and cumbersomeness. Complicating matters further, the distance from the site of the dead poultry and the disposal site can be substantially far apart, as many modern chicken coops can be hundreds of feet long. In fact, as animal raising houses can be large in square feet, the crew of workers often is forced to walk a great distance to dispose of dead animals. As such, it can take a significant amount of time and energy to walk from the dead animal site to the disposal site.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved system and method for transporting dead animals within an animal raising facility to a disposal site within the facility or outside of the facility. Such a system and method should be more efficient and reduce the time it takes to remove the dead animal from a facility and dispose of it at a disposal site. The present invention is directed to this need and other related needs.